with kids i think cord carpet isn't that bad. its hardwearing, and you could always get a few rugs to scatter around? I am gonna put cord carpet tiles down in my ds bedroom, he has floorboeards at the min, because if they get ruined its not the end of the world.

Its really fine and will look great as long as you get it laid properly with underlay. We have a flat at work that we did with this as a short term measure. In fact my parents have now lived there almost a year and the carpet still looks fine.
Dh has it in his office conversion as thats a big room and the building works had eaten the budget! Always looks crappy because he never bothers to hoover but when I can be bothered it hoovers up well.